1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to motor-driven oppositely arranged cooperative thruster-wheels of the type employed by commercially available ball/pitching-machines; and more specifically, it relates to those types of thruster-wheels capable of inducing varied trajectory dynamics into a launched ball.
2. Relevant Information
The purpose of ball/pitching-machines is that of a slave-pitcher which without tiring will throw a ball, be it generally a baseball (solid-core), or a light-weight commercially at available wiffle-ball (hollow-core with multiple surface holes), toward an awaiting ball-batter (hitter); as to thereby enable the ball-batter to thereby with earnest practice, toward gaining improvement of their batting skill. Some ball pitching-machines are designed rather like a pneumatic-cannon, and as such tend to propel the pitched-ball without a particular bias of spin; while the type of ball pitching being addressed herein is one designed to replicate a ball-trajectory more akin to that characteristic imparted by the human-hand (ie:—a pitcher's own unique signature of thumb, fingers, and knuckles). This then can result in different styles of pitching, such as are oft characteristically designated by an observant baseball-game announcer as: an “inside” or an “outside”—“curve-ball”, a “slider”, a “fast-ball”, a “drop-ball” (aka: “change-up”), according to the degree of so-called “english” or rotational-inertia a skilled if inspired pitcher's hand, arm, and body coordination dynamics can manage to induce into the resultantly flung ball. The pitching machines are often supported upon tripod-like stands, which are adjustable as to their height, azimuth, elevation, and speed of ball launching;—of which only velocity materially alters the ball's flight trajectory, while pitcher “induced spin” is capable of effecting trejectory (beyond those given effects of: gravity, air-density, wind-direction, & velocity). Accordingly, it has been thought advantageous by those skilled in the art of batting (as well as pitching), that to present pitched-balls having varied speeds and placement, while switching randomly between sorts of trajectory;—affords the best conditioning of a practicing ball-batter. However, such capability is not yet economically available, excepting perhaps in the very high-priced professional-league baseball pitching-machines. Many even expensive complex/pitching-machines require an attendant (or the batter themself) to periodically readjust the pitching-machine's thruster-wheels, so as to send a different signature of spin to the batter's strike-zone;—a rather static situation lacking of the desirably unpredictable personality of a skilled baseball-pitcher for example.